Special Needs: A Bruce and Natasha FanFic

Chapter 8: Like Two Normal People

Natasha stabbed her pen at the endless medical forms and tried not to show her irritation at the redundancy of the questionnaires and other necessary sheets. Pepper was sitting next to her and replying to a text from Tony, which was a selfie of Bruce and him on the plane. Bruce looked about as relaxed as he could on a small jet, which was something just short of going in front of a firing squad. "If you dare take a picture of us, Pepper, I will find some way to get even."

"Oops! Sorry." Pepper squeaked with a grimace and then smiled apologetically since she'd already pressed send. She showed Natasha the picture, which was kind of funny if you weren't the one in the hoodie and dark glasses filling out the paperwork. Natasha smiled and gave Pepper one of her milder evil looks with an eyebrow cocked over the top of her glasses. She then walked up to the front desk and turned in the pile of papers and clipboard. There had been plenty of blanks because of the gaps in her memories or just not knowing what her family's medical history was.

"I'm sure you're going to like Grace, Dr. Vining, that is. I've been going to her for a long time," said Pepper. "It was really good luck that there was a cancelation this morning."

"Yah," Natasha agreed as she sat back down. She'd been thinking about seeing the medical staff at the Avengers facility, but Pepper had had other ideas. Yah, Bruce was going to pay for this later. "So, let me get this straight. Dr. Vining is both a General Practitioner and Gynecologist. Isn't that a little unusual?"

"Maybe a little, but it gives her a chance to specialize in women's healthcare. Plus, there's no chance Tony is going to be seeing the same doctor." They both laughed at that. "They also have more GPs and Pediatricians, another OBGyn or two, and a married couple who are fertility specialists. It's a good-sized practice."

"That would explain why it's such a busy place, even early on a Thursday morning."

"Most of those folks on that side of the room are here for the fertility people. Lots of people come here early for testing."

Pepper's phone buzzed and she looked to see who it was. "Damn, I'm going to have to take this."

"No problem. Go ahead," said Natasha, and the tall strawberry blonde stepped out in the hall.

Natasha picked out a random magazine from the coffee table in front of her and pretended to read while she was actually people watching. She surreptitiously observed the other people in the waiting room and tried to imagine their reasons for being there: a half dozen women ranging between twenty and forty years, and most of them filling out that devilish stack of paperwork; a trio of guys in the thirty to forty-something range looking nervous (leaving samples, no doubt), one young couple looking quite pregnant, and another couple in their forties. The woman from the older couple kept stealing glances at the young pregnant woman who was several months along and in full blooming glow. The emotions, the longing were so evident on the woman's face that Natasha felt like she was intruding into her personal space just by observing, so she buried her nose deeper into the magazine and tried to lose herself in a recipe for "Never-Fail Fudge". It didn't work.

She closed her eyes. This was just stress. It was that simple. She'd had a few late periods before and once she got off an intense job, her cycle settled back to normal. That's all this is. She didn't want to start thinking about cancer or other illnesses until she absolutely had to do it. She stole one more glance at the two couples and their little pantomime playing out. The young father-to-be had his face pressed into his mobile phone playing a silly game and wasting time. For some reason, this irritated Natasha. He ought to be spending this moment holding his partner's hand or rubbing her feet, she thought sarcastically. Natasha almost snorted out loud. The man from the older couple was actually holding his wife's hand and watching her react to the younger woman. He finally squeezed her hand and pulled his wife into an embrace. Good for him. Damn, she missed Bruce right now.